I've owned this baby since 1999. I bought it in Grand Prairie, TX after coming home from a 4 year assignment to RAF Mildenhall UK. I then drove it straight through the night to Alamagordo NM in January, in the freezing cold, with the front windows rolled down because of the leaking gas line in the tunnel was pushing fumes so bad into the car I thought I would pass out. That was a SHITTY 14 hr drive.
I then proceeded to beat the piss out of the poor 1200 that came with the car, its fateful end coming back from Phx Bugorama just outside of Deming NM when one of the rods decided it wanted it's freedom. Hy Koch can tell you just how I drive this car, he couldn't believe a 1200 could be flogged so badly!
Then I built a nice little 1600 with home worked heads and Kads. I loved that engine, it was pretty quick for what it was and dead NUTS reliable. My wife and I drove it from NM to Seattle up the PCH for our honeymoon so we could drop it at the shippers to take it to our next tour, in Misawa Japan.
It was a great car to have in Japan, but getting it to pass their stupid safety tests was an absolute nightmare. It even handled the 12ft of annual snow fall admirably. In Japan I finally got started on my 2L. The engine I'd always wanted.
It took six years to save up all the parts and I finally got it running once I got back to AZ and had my heads done at CE.
82x94
FK8
9.5:1
Mike Fischer ported Street Eliminators with 42x37.5 valves
IDA's with welded manifolds
010 Distributor
1 5/8 Kymco merged header with turbo muffler
The engine was such a surprise in how unbelievably fast it was. The rear end would squat to the ground and then launch like a #*!)$* rocketship! Unfortunately I overlapped the oil expander rings on two pistons(!!!!). So sparkplugs would only last for a mile on 2 cylinders before they'd foul out. So I have the oil burning monster apart to re-ring it and clean a few things up.
I figured while the engine was out I'd finally take care of all the things that I've put off for too long.
So the body is off for a respray, the chassis is getting rebuilt to new and I'm actually switching from early fenders to a set of '67 fenders I just bought from Zach. I've always liked the upright headlights and I picked up a nice set of original rock guards for the headlights that I've always dug.
Also on the list is a few patch panels in the rear quarters, nothing too drastic.
building a wiring harness from scratch
welding the trim holes closed
new interior
The fenders that picked up had a few dents in them. I've never worked with original German fenders before, and I was amazed at how easy they are to work the dents out of. The thinner repros do not like to be hammered on!
This fender had a crease in it that you could lay your pinky in. It took about 20 minutes of hammering, filing, and shrinking to get this way. With some high build primer it probably won't need any filler.
The Cal-look Lounge
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